Can you believe 2012 is almost over? This year was a big one for me… I started my new job, recently moved to our new home, started blogging and taking my polish and beauty obsession to a whole new level, and along with that, I met some amazing people in this community.

It’s been a little quiet on my blog lately, mainly due to my big move just before Christmas… I thought I would catch up, not only on a blog post or two, but also share some of my top polishes of the year (with links to the original posts).

My most popular post, even garnering a shout-out from Suzi Weiss-Fishman, OPI’s Creative Director, on her twitter chat recently (!!), was the Monet jelly sandwich. This was created using OPI’s Funny Bunny with Shimmer Polish Linna, and it turned into one of my favourite manicures.

From the same collection, here is Nubar Rouge, another gorgeous pink I fell in love with:

Up next, another of my most popular posts comes courtesy of OPI’s first foray into magnetics, from the OPI Skyfall Collection to commemorate 50 years of Bond films: OPI Magnetic Lacquer Is that Silva? I just love the holo magnetic!

Who doesn’t love a sparkly linear holographic polish? The ladies at Glitter Gal have made holos their business, and let me tell you, Glitter Gal Wisteria does not disappoint!! I loved the subtlety of this light hue…

Next is a sparkly vampy black jelly courtesy of Aphrodite Lacquers, Nebula. Though I love vamps, I don’t always wear straight black polishes, unless, of course, they have a little something like Nebula does. Filled with aqua and silver glitters, Nebula has depth and sparkle:

And last but not least, the one that started my love affair with Aphrodite Lacquers, Grapetini! I think it’s fair to say that AL is one of my favourite indies, having created a number of polishes that I wear again and again… and Grapetini, with its purple squishiness, was part of my very first AL order that was not meant to be. It has the unfortunate distinction of being my first polish to arrive smashed to pieces lol.

And that, dear readers, is my first top… 16 list! It was meant to be a top-12 but there were simply too many that I adore. There are many more that I love and wanted to share, but in the spirit of keeping this a somewhat shortish blog post, not all the beauties could be included… Perhaps I will share another top-12 list soon.

Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I have enjoyed selecting my favourites. May the New Year bring you and your loved ones much joy and happiness, success and love.

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In honour of Rebecca aka Aphrodite Lacquers’ birthday today, I bring you her entire Birthday Collection!

Rebecca recently released this Birthday Collection to commemorate her December birthday (rather than going the usual “holiday” route and releasing a green, red or gold holiday collection), made up of five party-ready polishes with perfect birthday-like names. 🙂

I first previewed this collection here, sharing Make a Wish, a delicate white jelly with silver glitter and a hidden silver shimmer. Here it is with two coats on the first two fingers, and one coat over white on the other two:

Next, possibly one of my favourite hot pink jellies, It’s My Party, a neon pink with silver shimmer. I was not ready for the gorgeousness of this jelly (and you know how I feel about jellies!!). It POPS in the perfect way, and I just loved the way it looked on my shorter nails.

That’s two coats of gorgeousness with base and top coat.

Not quite ready to part with It’s My Party (and I’ll cry if I want to 😉 ), I added some Icing to the tips!!

The Icing on the Cake, a clear top-coat-type polish, with multiple sizes of soft translucent white glitters and a soft silvery shimmer, is the perfect topping to any polish, buildable and providing just a hint of glitter. I LOVE The Icing on the Cake!!

Doesn’t that look delicious together?

Then we have Never Too Old, a black matte polish with hidden silver and fuchsia shimmer, and a total surprise in this collection!

At just two coats, it dries quickly to a gorgeous matte finish, no top coat needed.

But… if you did feel like wearing it shiny, a single coat of top coat brings the fuchsia and silver shimmer to life, giving this polish a 3D level of depth and almost holographic sparkle!

Here I added some gold shimmer to the tips, courtesy of Nicole by OPI’s Selena Gomez Collection, Kissed at Midnight.

Here is a shot of the NOPI bottle. Gorgeous gold, isn’t it? (And quite reminiscent of Sephora by OPI’s Only Gold for Me, previously reviewed here.) Such a perfect New Year’s mani!

Clearly I had too much fun with Never Too Old! (And I should point out the longevity of this polish: I wore the above combo for 8 days, with nary a chip. I posted a pic of the week-old mani on my Instagram.)

Last but not least, Wrappings, Ribbons, Bows, a deep purple filled with tiny purple glitters. Purple goodness!!! I wore it over a coat of China Glaze’s new Creative Fantasy, a deep purple jelly:

(Please excuse my poor pinky – took a while to recover from the nasty tear…)

One of the most gorgeous OPIs (in my humble opinion) from the Muppets collection was Wocka Wocka, a rich, deep, cool-hued red with a multi-chromatic shimmer. I wish I wore this colour more often because I adore it.

Finally, one of my summery go-to colours from OPI, Miami Beet, a beautiful deep berry creme, became the base for Aphrodite’s Pre-Party, a sheer pink polish base with color changing shimmer that goes from pink to coppery gold, and multiple different pink, black, and white glitters.

Here is one of it in the shade… I love the shimmer reflecting off this.

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Today I have for you another jelly sandwich! This one was photographed in the fall but I didn’t get a chance to post it with all of the things that have been going on lately (my big move)….

You may remember my adoration of the Zoya Gloss trio, a collection of perfect jellies that I cannot get enough of (see more here and here!). In this mani, I used Zoya Katherine, along with one of my favourite indie brands, Aphrodite Lacquers…. squished together in a jam-like polish. 🙂

Catfight was from Aphrodite’s Friday Night Glitter Bombs Collection released in early September, and described as a sheer red polish, with a pinkish purple shimmer, and multiple different red, black, and white glitters. It’s gorgeous in its bottle – a deep red jelly glitter. Instead of wearing this alone, I decided to layer this polish between coats of Zoya Katherine, a deep aubergine jelly in the highest shine, glossy formula I have ever seen.

It looks slightly sheer in the bright sun, but in the shade, below, you can see the depth and high shine of this combo. I just LOVE how this is bordering on the edge of both vampy and glittery… And did you see that slight purple shimmer?

The China Glaze® Glitz—Bitz ’N Pieces collection will be available in February 2013 at fine salons and beauty supply stores nationwide.

China Glaze is free of DBP, toluene, and added formaldehyde.

China Glaze nail lacquers are available through salons and professional beauty supply stores nationwide. For more information, please visit www.chinaglaze.com or follow China Glaze on Facebook, Twitter (@ChinaGlaze) and Pinterest.

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Today I have a couple of the latest beauties from Sonnetarium for you. These are a part of her Winter 2012 Collection, a gorgeous, delectable-looking collection of five polishes perfect for the holiday and winter season.

The first colour is candy for your fingertips: Peppermint Kiss, a gorgeous, near-white with the slightest whisper of pink, filled with white, green and red hexes in multiple sizes. Loving white bases (and jellies!), this was a fun variation of a holiday polish. Love!

For this mani, I used two generous coats of Peppermint Kiss alone, though I did think about layering it over a coat of my favourite jelly white, OPI’s Funny Bunny. Next time for sure. 🙂

Up next, Twelve Days, a hot and bright jelly with small gold, silver and white glitters. This one is seriously glitter-dense and sparkly! It was so hard to capture the beautiful red on camera as the glitters wanted to dance for my camera, but here are two coats with a coat of top coat:

Coverage on Twelve Days was amazing. The first coat is a little sheer, but ultra-vibrant, and by the second coat, perfection!

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Following yesterday’s post of my Monet-inspired OPI Funny Bunny and Shimmer Polish jelly sandwich, I thought it only appropriate to dedicate a quick post to the canvas of one of my favourite manicures…

This delicate jelly sandwich (detailed here) was built upon my newest favourite white jelly polish, OPI’s Funny Bunny. Funny Bunny was released in 2007’s Garden Party collection for spring. I know, it does seem like a really old polish now that I type that out! However, it is perfection bottled. A perfect soft white, Funny Bunny is a clean white jelly leaning slightly warm rather than blue-based. It’s not warm enough to be yellow which I love! It’s like a crisp white linen shirt…

Unlike last year’s NY Ballet Collection, a collection of very sheer jellies which I wanted to love but didn’t due to the 3 – 4 coats needed to achieve any hint of colour or coverage, Funny Bunny only needs two nice coats for beautiful and even coverage. A white that self-levels? Sign me up!